Airline miles and credit cards

[Mickijune]

Hi All, I know nothing about using credit cards to get airline miles. We have been on a cash system lately and I was thinking, since we are planning a trip to Spain in 2014 to visit my husband's family, why not try to get as much in airfare for free as possible!?!

We are in Seattle, so would probably have to fly to the East Coast then to Europe/Spain, but I have no idea which airline is best for that...how many stops we will have to make, etc...

Is there a specific card that racks up airline miles that can be used for any airline, since we don’t know which airline we will be flying? Can you use points to fund a partial ticket, since I’m guessing the tickets will be awfully expensive?

We would use the card for all regular expenses and pay it off each month, of course. So expecting to charge between $16k-$19k over the next year (depending) and plan on buying the tickets (for 3 people) the end of next year for August 2014 travel.

[Freedom2016]

I think Capital One carries airline miles cards. 

But why not a cash back card? We have a Chase card and we've gotten $1625 back in the last 2.5 years.

[Mickijune]

I guess we just don't spend enough to get enough. But having a card would most definitely help manage expenses if all we had to do was pay it once a month!

My husband already has a BECU card, but that is one credit card we are trying to pay off before we start on the student loans. Plan on having that one paid off by June next year!

[unitsinc]

You might be able to glean some good info from here.

http://spartantraveler.com/how-i-flew-around-the-world-for-less-than-220/

[kudy]

I have "Escape by Discover" as my main credit card - it gives "double miles" (which aren't really miles at all, but points you can redeem towards travel)... it's been a nice way to get a bit of extra traveling or amazon.com money.  I wrote a blog post about the cards I currently use for rewards here, if you're interested.